J.W. Runeberg Prize awarded to Dan Lindholm

The 2025 J.W. Runeberg Prize has been awarded to Professor Dan Lindholm for his groundbreaking contributions to neuroscience and neurodegenerative diseases. In its justification, the Prize Committee highlights Dan Lindholm’s research on neurotrophic factors and the roles of mitochondria and the endoplasmic reticulum in brain diseases such as Huntington’s, Parkinson’s disease, and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). He has also explored the identification of potential pharmacological molecules and the development of therapeutic strategies to prevent and mitigate neuronal damage in the brain.

“I am deeply honored by the award and want to extend my warm thanks to all my colleagues and members of the research group who contributed to the work” says Dan Lindholm. Professor Vesa Olkkonen, director of the Minerva Foundation Institute for Medical Research, states, ”it is excellent that preclinical research of this kind is being recognized, as it may ultimately benefit many patients.”

Dan Lindholm has served as group leader at the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry in Munich, professor of neurobiology at Uppsala University, professor of cell and molecular biology at the University of Helsinki, and visiting professor at Harvard Medical School in Boston and at Linköping University. He has also held the position of director and research group leader at the Minerva Foundation Institute for Medical Research.

The J.W. Runeberg Prize

The Finnish Medical Society awards the J.W. Runeberg Prize every second year for outstanding scientific achievement. The prize consists of a medal and a monetary sum. Johan Wilhelm Runeberg, the third son of the national poet, was a surgeon and professor of clinical medicine at the University of Helsinki, and he donated funds for this prize in 1902. Today, the prize is one of the most prestigious medical honors in the country.